A St. Paul man will serve six months in jail for an attack on a coach of his son's youth hockey team last year in Inver Grove Heights.

Thomas Angelo Tonda, 50, pleaded guilty in August to one felony count of making terroristic threats; a misdemeanor fifth-degree assault charge was dismissed.

According to the charges, Tonda confronted the assistant coach, put him in a chokehold and threatened to kill him during a Dec. 6 practice of the Inver Grove Heights-South St. Paul PeeWee C team. Tonda's son was a player on the team, which is made up of boys ages 11-13.

The fight erupted when Tonda reportedly confronted the coach after he disciplined Tonda's son for swinging his stick like a baseball bat at the Inver Grove Heights west rink.

The coach, who also had children on the team, told police that Tonda's son and two other players were fighting before the boy began swinging his stick and hitting one of them. The coach told Tonda's son his behavior was "unacceptable" and directed him to get back in line and do a drill.

Instead, according to the criminal complaint, the boy skated off the ice and went into the locker room. Tonda followed his son.

When Tonda returned, he went to the penalty box and began screaming at the coach, the complaint said. When the man told Tonda to go home, Tonda refused and attacked the coach.

"I am going to choke you out," he reportedly threatened after pushing the coach.

As Tonda grabbed his neck, the coach told police, he began to lose consciousness.

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Another coach eventually pulled Tonda off the man.

But as Tonda left the penalty box, the charges said, he declared: "I'm going to (expletive) kill you."

Tonda faced up to seven years in prison because he violated his five-year probation from a 2009 felony drug conviction.

In addition to the 180 days in jail, Judge Timothy McManus on Tuesday also gave Tonda a 21-month stayed jail sentence and ordered him to perform 350 hours of community work service and 50 days of sentence to service.

"Assaulting and threatening a youth athletics coach in this manner is extremely disturbing behavior," Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a statement. "We are pleased to have brought Thomas Tonda to justice for his criminal conduct."